Already dig many of the usual suspects, so throw out some deeper recommends. Some of the more modern stuff is finally starting to "click" for me. Prefer the slower/sloppier beats & flow. Not into the overtly gangster stuff.

Already dig many of the usual suspects, so throw out some deeper recommends. Some of the more modern stuff is finally starting to "click" for me. Prefer the slower/sloppier beats & flow. Not into the overtly gangster stuff.

Who are the usually suspects? Cause besides say Roots "Phrenology", I haven't heard a decent rap/hip hop album since like '94/'95. And that includes Dalek.

Wow. Is this what the kids are listening to now?!? No wonder "da man" has every cell phone tapped and the gov't has bought up millions of rounds of ammo. If you "get" the message here, this is Revolutionary music in the truest sense. Casts the poor barrios of NY/NJ/Anywhere USA as the new 13 colonies. Makes modern Black/Death Metal sound like the played-out joke music for douchebag hipsters that it is now. As a complete newbie to this stuff? I'm impressed with the content and the Passion. Not gonna listen to it on my way to work of course, but.....just sayin': Immortal Techniques rhyming and content is next level.

ever been in best buy or target and try out dr dre's headpones? crappy as helland you can't teach old dogs new tricks so these kids today never happened, find a way to milk them all you want, I'm good.

I grew up in the 90s and most of my friends were into hip hop, and none of them were into Black Sabbath. Therefore, I got a pretty good rap education.

Never liked the goofy/party shit when it was around, because it was the soundtrack of the ruling caste in my school, but lately I've been going back to Redman, Method Man, Busta Rhymes, Lost Boyz, etc. I can enjoy it a lot more now, mainly because it's a hundred times better than Drake or Future or any of these terrible kids who are supposed to be bringing rap into the new century. It would be nice to find some good newer shit, but other than Action Bronson who is a straight up Ghostface/90s style ripoff/throwback, Ghost himself (whose new album was great) and The Roots (who have been around for 20 years anyways) there's nothing that interests me.

As usual though, I'm not very concerned. Because even though hip hop is a very thin genre compared to rock in terms of actual artists and releases, there's still dozens of albums I'd like to pick up from the past three decades, and I'm sure I'll never get to them all, especially since hip hop was and still is a distant second to the rocka rolla in my listening preference.

_________________"5 feet away look up to a 9 footer with shoulders as wide as your dashboard and see if you care how progressives are telling you how to think." -Dong, on bigfoot and politics.

I grew up in the 90s and most of my friends were into hip hop, and none of them were into Black Sabbath. Therefore, I got a pretty good rap education.

Never liked the goofy/party shit when it was around, because it was the soundtrack of the ruling caste in my school, but lately I've been going back to Redman, Method Man, Busta Rhymes, Lost Boyz, etc. I can enjoy it a lot more now, mainly because it's a hundred times better than Drake or Future or any of these terrible kids who are supposed to be bringing rap into the new century. It would be nice to find some good newer shit, but other than Action Bronson who is a straight up Ghostface/90s style ripoff/throwback, Ghost himself (whose new album was great) and The Roots (who have been around for 20 years anyways) there's nothing that interests me.

As usual though, I'm not very concerned. Because even though hip hop is a very thin genre compared to rock in terms of actual artists and releases, there's still dozens of albums I'd like to pick up from the past three decades, and I'm sure I'll never get to them all, especially since hip hop was and still is a distant second to the rocka rolla in my listening preference.

Great post. Not looking to have a comprehensive collection either. Just looking for a few more CDs to spin when the mood hits. Doubt i'll ever have more than 50 Hip-Hop CDs in the collection. I own about 3K in total. The math is obvious.

"It goes, it goes....it goes, it goes..." Your flow is utter shit. WTF was that? Anyway, can i turn off the (c)rapping? It's much better w/o as the beats are quite interesting and fresh. Some Aphex/Gabber/House bits in there, but is Death Grips some kind of post-modern Spinal Tap-esque joke band? Fuck that. Don't care. It's prolly "Tha Shit" in Y-town. Meh. Next.

So what's the best The Roots album to start with? They keep coming up and i don't have one yet.

'Things fall apart' is my favorite. That and 'Illadelph Halflife' are their best, IMO.

As a native Philly kid who saw these guys playing with the likes of The Goats and G.Love on South Street when they first got going, I still hold their break out album "Do You Want More !?" as the benchmark. The first 7-8 songs are unfuckable jazz/crossover/beats/blue collar,etc. hip hop at its absolute core. Philly streets to the T. My second favorite is actually "Phrenology". Stellar album, diverse, dark, creative. Even heavy at times. Just a very good listen all the way through.

I would guess that there is almost as much hip-hop released as all rock and roll genres combined. nothing scientific about my guess, though. just from searching 'file sharing' sites.

I was basing that on the fact that in every store that sells cds, the rap section is a quarter or an eighth the size of the rock section. And possibly that there seems to be about one hip hop group for every ten rock bands around here, and I live in a college area with a fair amount of small time artists.

But...I'm willing to accept that there's a lot of DJs and drum and bass shit going on that could be lumped into the general "Hip Hop" umbrella in the way that we find Nine Inch Nails, Phish and Joan Jett in the same "Rock" category, if we were going to expand that way. Also, rap artists are obsessed with the fact that hip hop is "underground" even though it as a genre far outsells the type of music this website is dedicated to. I'm willing to accept that there is a lot of hip hop out there that is way under the radar as much as, say Farflung or Camel Of Doom. And I'm just not tuned into that wavelength.

Still think there isn't as much out there in general, for the aforementioned reasons and for the fact that rock has two decades worth of releases more than rap has.

It was Things Fall Apart that got me into the Roots.

_________________"5 feet away look up to a 9 footer with shoulders as wide as your dashboard and see if you care how progressives are telling you how to think." -Dong, on bigfoot and politics.